Family photo album fading into memory

Thing of the past: the family photo album has been superceded by digital technology

They were once the main record of our lives, chronicling happy ­memories through the decades.

But the family photo album is in ­danger of becoming little more than a memory itself, it would seem.

Just 15 years after the first digital camera was launched on the high street, 80 per cent of Britons now ­prefer to store their pictures ­digitally, on laptops and on the internet, rather than in an album, according to a survey.

And while nine out of ten own a ­camera almost half do not bother to print off their photos at all.

Those who do only print off 10 per cent of the photographs they take, according to research published yesterday by PC World.

Some 57 per cent of those surveyed said their number one place to ­display photos was on social networking websites, compared with only

4 per cent who prioritised showing them in their homes.

The survey of 2,700 people found that almost twice as many would now rather save their laptop or mobile phone from a house fire than the family photo album.

With the arrival of social networking sites and photo-sharing online many experts predict the death knell of the family album.

The survey also found that while the majority of women have fond memories of their hen dos and proudly share the photos (62 per cent), just 38 per cent of men were happy to share their stag photos, perhaps hinting at more raucous antics.

The survey also found that Brits are more likely to take a camera along to a stag do than to the birth of a baby.

Asked which photos they treasured, 88 per cent included a much-loved holiday picture, 65 per cent a snap of a family get-together, and 51 per cent one of the birth of a child.

The results come as PC World becomes the first high street retailer to allow customers to personalise laptop lids with their favourite photos when they buy a new one.